Alternative Energy Trends

The universe of alternative, renewable energy is so broad, with so many start-ups launching new ideas and technologies all the time, that it seems almost impossible to stay on top of the latest alternative energy trends. Perhaps a good place to start is a report put together earlier this year by the Energy Information Administration (the U.S. government�s official energy statistics department) which shows how much renewable energy accounted for in America between 2006 and 2007 (the next report is due in 2010).

According to the report, renewable energy consumption corresponded to roughly seven per cent of the U.S. total. Biomass led alternative energy trends with 53 per cent of the renewable energy market, followed by hydroelectric power with 36 per cent. At the same time, some of the fastest annual rates of growth in consumption were for wind (29 percent) and ethanol (26 percent).

Another way to look at alternative energy trends is to see how much of it was used for electricity production. In 2007 the share of total renewable energy used for electricity production was 54 percent or 3,699 trillion Btu (British Thermal Units). Ninety-four percent of renewable energy consumed for electricity generation in 2007 was by electric utilities and independent power producers in the electric power sector; the remaining six percent was in the industrial sector.

One type of green energy that is very likely to lead the way in alternative energy trends in solar. The sector is currently undergoing a financial downturn due to changes in governmental subsidies in Spain, the largest solar market in the world, which has weighed down the global market. However, on a research level, innovation is constant. Scientists are working hard to increase the rate of conversion of solar power to electricity and figure out ways to distribute this type of electricity. It may take long, but it will get there.

One of the most outstanding alternative energy trends is the recent focus on geothermal. According to a report called Clean Edge in its Clean Energy Trends 2008 (Joel Makower, Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder), "geothermal is the only clean-energy resource besides hydroelectric that provides baseload power 24 hours a day, and with average plant uptime of 98 percent, it does so even more reliably than nuclear or coal-fired power plants, both of which require more downtime for maintenance." The report highlighted the fact that three of California's largest investor-owned utilities, PG&E, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric, recently announced new geothermal plans attracted by geothermal electric low costs, which are between 4-7 cents per kilowatt-hour.